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I pick a track on Apple Music and it continues with auto play. I find so much new and interesting stuff that way. Stuff I really like I’ll save in my yearly playlist. When I’m board I’ll review and try the artists album.
I do that at bars and restaurants, sort of. When I hear something I like that they are streaming, I Shazam it. Find lots of new stuff that way.
A Music collection is like your personal Art Gallery when you do not qualify for the upper echelons of wealth and income. I do remember, often (OK, not always), the circumstances when I listened to the album first, with whom, and how it became, or it did not, one of the favorite mood enhancers of my days and evenings. I could wax cheap forgettable poetry about different Albums: yes, I do remember that cold November in 1976 when I purchased, with the only and last money I had in my wallet, the LP Selling England by the Pound, or when later, much later, I became the owner of the first Mahler's CDs box set directed by Haitink...I will spare you more. So, for my personal taste, Music should come from your collection, with a distant second an FM station like WCRB here in Massachusetts. And yes, a music server (vs. streamer, if the difference does exist and makes sense) is a modality to extend into the evanescence of Music the memories of your past and the enthusiasm about what (still) lies ahead through almost immediate access to each and every (transferred) CD of your collection. It allows to duplicate the collection rather easily, and for a fraction of the original cost, in each of the locations on the planet where you spend some quality time: the different rooms in your house, the portable music player, the visits to my beloved Engadine home. The additions to the collection usually come from direct experience at Symphony Hall, WCRB, The WSJ music page and web searches about composers and performers. Streaming is a very distant last option for me, as I usually can tell the lower quality of the source and the insufficient information about the recording, the players and the venue where the recording was made. And yes, I do agree in part with the comment about not knowing anymore what you like because the streaming service might trigger silly skimming through too many offers before you have time to let decant, listen again, and then listen once more to an Album or a Symphony recording.
No I don't think so. Music is locked up almost fully by what three companies? In video, after Netflix got first movies from everywhere, you then had those companies see the value and all start their own thing. What has happened the last 18 months is more of a consolidation actually. Amazon and Netflix have spent money to create their own content, and there are at least a few other companies owning content. The movie business is different from music and creating your own content is easier in a sense.
I don't know on the economic parameters. Record companies have given bad deals to most musicians for a hundred years at least. I remember reading Muddy Waters 1st contract with Leonard Chess paid Mr. Waters 1/2 a penny per 100 records sold. So a 100,000 sale Gold record would have paid Mr. Waters $500. And the Chess Brothers couldn't be counted on to give honest accounting even at those rates.
